Thread: Is this Lyctus Borer damage?

I'm making a crosscut sled and was looking for a suitable piece of timber to use for the fence and cleaned up an old piece of heavily weathered timber of indeterminate species and find it has quite a few pinhole damage areas. Before dressing the faces were somewhat soft to touch with a touch of dry rot.

I'm wondering if it is lyctus borer damage, since the pinholes are less than a millimeter across. There is no obvious activity in the tunnels, no obvious powder and probing them with a syringe needle doesn't squish anything.

What I don't understand is that this doesn't appear to be sapwood so why would it have borer attack? Do lyctus go for dry rot affected dry timber?pinholes.jpg

What is the likelihood it is some other form of borer that is still active? The timber isn't really suitable for much else, but being dry, straight and a suitable size, is there any reason not to use it since cosmetics don't matter for a tablesaw jig.